Boris' Wi-Fi plans have no substance

When Boris Johnson took to the stage at the Google Zeitgeist event in May he told the assembled media that London would become the technology capital of the world with Wi-Fi hotspots on "every lamp post and every bus stop".

Johnson also talked about mass Wi-Fi coverage at the recent State of London debate, and even mentioned plans to get Wi-Fi access on the tube network.

It seems though, that the London Mayor was getting a bit ahead of himself, as City Hall officials have now come out to distance themselves from the claims.

A City Hall official told PC Pro that the plans hadn't yet been raised with any of the London boroughs or even Transport for London.

“Boris Johnson is ambitious about making this happen, but really we're not saying how this might be rolled out or even that it is going to happen”, the spokesperson said.

“The Mayor is passionate about access, but all he has done so far is mention it in a couple of meetings to see what people thought.

"We're not in a position to move this forward at all without the boroughs [and] we're certainly not in a position to employ any service provider to help run a Wi-Fi service”.

So, Boris was just sending out the feelers. Let's hope he is as ambitious as the spokesperson said though - it would be great if London could offer more Wi-Fi access, especially as we're all mobile deviced up to our eyeballs now.